Taking to the road for PI: use the balance scorecard to find your way

The financial pressures of today's healthcare environment require healthcare professionals to be able to keep all quadrants of quality in check. Tools such as the data card will assist the users of quality data in providing the organization with a catalyst for change. The reproducibility of both the process and the tool has proven to assist an individual organization in creating a clear concise message in the integration of performance measures. This article discusses a methodology and tool for organizations to integrate and evaluate disparate sources of information that can be used to direct priorities for Performance Improvement. The data card is a tool adapted from the Dartmouth Clinical Value Compass used to assist Performance Improvement teams in both the tracking and evaluation of measures related to patient satisfaction, functional status, clinical outcomes, and financial outcomes. The visual enhancement of adding color to the arrows of the compass allows the end users to quickly identify performance improvement opportunities. Examples of the data card are included to assist the readers in identifying specific indicators that can be measured with a specific clinical population as well as adaptation to other uses such as organization-wide indicator measurement Benchmarking is key in defining best practices and has been integrated into the data card.